Abstract

Wind power is anticipated to be the dominant Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the UK by the year 2020. It is estimated that, there will be 41 GW of operational offshore wind in the UK beyond the 2020s. This wind penetration would likely increase the excess of electricity production. In this paper the Great Britain (GB) energy system was modelled at the national level for a range of wind power penetration and three different transport scenarios; vehicles with Internal Combustion engines (IC), Electric Vehicles (EVs) without Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) capability, and EVs with V2G capability. Two additional scenarios for the electricity sector; CHP and non-CHP were also included in the model. A scaled down system was also modelled as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) that aggregates several microgenerators, loads and flexible storage capacities. The first model is studied in terms of Critical Excess Electricity Production (CEEP) and CO2 emissions, and the value of using EVs as flexible storage is illustrated with different levels of wind power integration. In the second study case, the necessary electricity imports for the VPP in all transport scenarios are evaluated. Adding V2G capability in EVs can provide a flexible energy storage mechanism that reduces the necessary electricity imports, and increases the autonomy of such systems, even at low wind power penetration levels.